t-day special

at this time last year, i was miles away from family in the warm caribbean sun, walking the streets of the colonial zone in the domincan republic's capital city of santo domingo. with banks of the ozama river knifing through the heart of the over populated city and the caribbean sea forming the southern border i was far from the cold fronts that were passing through the midwest and the great lakes region.  by this time, i was still not fully acclimated to the humid climate of the south and was craving just the slightest hint of wind burn on my lips and my mother's sweet potato casserole that was sure to warm my insides.

breaking in the new year

i think it is only cliche as someone who does this whole blog thing to take a minute and talk about breaking in the new year. 2009 started with a plan, something concrete and exact, a mix of certainties and undiscovered possibilities that stood within reach of a wide-eyed 22 year old soon to be college graduated who had his life set to the "t". i have always thought of myself to some extent as someone who had it figured out, had a plan, a road map for my life. i was going to graduate college or get a job, get married, have kids, grow old and somewhere during that lose sight of my childhood

christmas, does it really exist here?

i have come to find from living in southwest florida that christmas does not exist in this part of the world. it is all fake down here, no real christmas decorations, no merry singing, no overcast skies with blistering winds, and no snow. how the hell can a parent live with themselves while providing a child a "christmas" without the winter wonderland? being from ohio, having a white christmas may not have been a guarantee, but at least it was always a great possibility. i remember being young and running down to stairs to see what santa brought me only to be momentarily side tracked by the fresh powder, marked only by what i thought were reindeer tracks, that could be seen through the front door windows. not only that, i was in pajamas-meaning flannel pants and soon to be a sweatshirt because it was winter in